Purgatory circle
by ItachiFanGirl185
Summary: Waking up in your bed to a stranger staring at you after you bled out in a factory isn't really ideal. Having your cul de sac become mismatched with random souls from over a hundred years back and the ground crumbling into never ending sky isn't ideal either. Being told your dead is probably the worst by far.
1. Chapter 1

The mismatch window sill bench cushions began to mold around me I had been here so long, I could always just lean out just an inch to hang my feet out of the window into the brisk night air. Summer was ending and the closer it got the more of a failure I felt, I've spent two summers doing nothing but rot in my parents' house after graduation. I never left the safety of my Oakwood bench, never felt the need to think of my next step. In my mind I couldn't picture myself older, it's been that way since I was ten I suppose.

Huffing at my thoughts I turned out to let my gaze linger at the engulfing forest line behind Purgatory Circle cookie cutter homes. A flash of white appeared in my flower patch just 15 feet below me, a kitten. Its color popped against the bright orange and pinks. Mom and Dad never let me have one with my severe allergies, my feet harshly pounded the ground. I needed to jump, I needed to get out of my rut, wholeheartedly needed that beautiful cat. I cursed, it dashed across my flowers trampling everything in its path spooked. Taking off to the tree line I followed, branches marred my pasty skin as they sporadically assaulted my exposed self. Cursing my polka dot pajama shorts and tank top I pushed on, I had never felt more motivated. If I came home marked head to toe from my pursuit they'd have to let me keep him, they'd be proud I hadn't given up for once in my life.

My feet skidded to a halt etching lines in the ground. The factory closed in the early 70's had become just a nasty shell of it former beauty. Everything crumbling or rusting, was this his home? His soft voice sounded close, I needed to find him. Wishing I had grabbed my flashlight I struggled on, becoming weary of holes or possible shard rusty objects. My phobia of needles wouldn't pair well with a series of tetanus shots. Finally, a gaping hole in the ceiling gave me light, a figure lay posed on the old grimy conveyer belt. The nasty fear of him leaving me raised fast like acidic bile throughout my being. I ran cautiously to him trying not to be loud enough to frighten him. I should have been cautious of my footing not my sounds.

I stepped right into a trench directly in front of the conveyer belt, the reject hole. I wanted to laugh bitterly at the irony I felt but couldn't, my sides hurt too much. A violent hiss left my mouth and echoed throughout my newest home. I retracted my fingers feeling something liquid and thick on them, blood. It was mine, feeling hazy I looked around as the world spun slowly and tried to get up. Pain shot throughout me again as my palms came back with colorful glass that collected throughout the years. My worrywart of a helicopter mom would find me, it set me at ease. I just needed to sleep, everything hurt and sleep would numb it. I'd wake up in a cold sterile hospital with mom yelling through angry tears at my recklessness. Maybe I could guilt her into going to a shelter afterwards.

XxXxXx

It began to storm, thunder echoing, and lightning striking the nonexistent distance. The wind whipped my face picking up in pace, angry and violent. Here came another ankle-biter, it ain't nothing to cast an eyeball about. Nobody had razzed my berry since C-Sly, now we're tight. Only two pads were left in the circle and it'd be a kick to instead force somebody with another cube like the 80's twins. Honestly a new dolly would be kick'n , a cherry to tease and poke at.

Opening my window letting in Daddy O' Nature's cold ass breath I sat at my momma's piano bench and began to recline. The flick would start soon, the empty buildings reshaping into the newest cube's memories, as long as my underpass stayed I couldn't care. Running my fingers through my hair I sighed before playing the only sound to pair with rain.

XxXxXxX

Blinding light, green blinding light. Florescent Hospital light bulbs were green now? I could hear grumbling but honestly mom could wait. Rolling over I shoved my nose deeper into the comforter. Comforter? Panic raised and shot me up with it, I was in my cramped bedroom. Why wouldn't mom take me to the hospital? Was she fine? Did the glass hurt her too when she went in after me? The grumbling stopped and reminded me someone was in my doorway, something fluttered in my chest at the thought of seeing my parents again. Red slicked hair and angry brown eyes clashed with my vision instead. Why was a greaser cosplayer in my doorframe?

"Who the fuck, are you?" I growled slightly confused at the no pain in my ribs.

His scowl deepened, " Wondering how to get you agitate the gravel instead of taking a nod in my pad."

"You're the one in a barely dressed girl's bedroom." I snarked back knowing only what he said was an insult but not what it meant.

"You're sweet Dolly and have a classy chassis, " his eyes skimmed my body causing me to pull my blanket higher, " but you might want to eyeball and get in orbit."

"Speak English Asshole." I ground out.

"First off get bent, and second you don't know how you got here?" He spit out sounding concerned at the end.

"No, I stepped in a hole." I flat lined.

He braced himself, "Baby don't have a cow but you're dead


	2. Chapter 2

Purgatory circle chapter 2

Authors Note: please support and follow on Archive of our own

Previously on Purgatory Circle Chapter 1;

"First off get bent, and second you don't know how you got here?" He spit out sounding concerned at the end.

"No, I stepped in a hole." I flat lined.

He braced himself, "Baby don't have a cow but you're dead."

Purgatory Circle Chapter 2

The pine trees and the leather clad boy

"Wow you must think I'm an idiot huh?" I sighed flopping back onto my rat's nest of a bed, I really didn't need nine pillows and four throw blankets.

" I don't think something like this would be a big tickle, " He sighed sliding his hands across his greased-up scalp," You might be a closet case if you're this fine. Then again all closet cases do have a classy chassis."

"Did Naruto put you up to this? Is he mad because I cut him off? " I shot to my feet rage filling me up to the brim, " It isn't fair that he got to keep looking forward and he's upset I didn't die trying to catch his dust!"

Shaking with a new-found rage mixed with a deep humiliation in my core at for unloading my inner feelings onto a stranger I cowered, " I didn't, I just."

His hands went up in a sign of mock surrender, " Wow, wow now Dolly. Cut the grass and listen, I know you're drowning and confused but just follow me outside. There's something you'll need to cast an eyeball at."

Grabbing my wrist, he yanked me out of bed and went straight for the rickety stairs. The Livingroom caught my vision but only in a fast-motioned blur and my heart seized. All of my cringe worthy childhood paintings were gone from the mantle, in fact there wasn't even a mantle. Why were the walls painted mint green like cheap toothpaste? The stranger now kidnapper or well adult-napper noticed my hesitance and pulled hard on me again towards our secret destination.

Purgatory circle had been the personification of mismatch. None of the muted cookie cutter houses greeted my nervous stomach or creased with concern eyes. Every house was different, the build, shape, color, and hell even the grass was different shades and was that snow on only half a yard?

A deep electric violet late 1950's "A" framed house starkly stood out along with its enormous amount of paper flowers littering the grass and any surface flat enough to hold them. A woman with a mop of choppy short purple hair laid in the middle of an immense pile almost being swallowed by them. My heart skipped a beat, my photographer's fingers itching to grab my camera.

"Didn't know you swung that way cherry head, making me feel real low at your direction." He chuckled going towards the beginning of our neighborhood near the street sign engraved with Purgatory Circle.

" It's not Doll, Dolly, Baby, or hell even Cherry Head no matter how cool that sounds. My name is Sakura Haruno, say it with me, Sa-Ku-Ra Har-uno." I huffed annoyed puffing my cheeks out.

"So that's your handle huh? Mine's Sasori, " He clarified, " Cherry head." He grinned turning back at me.

His leather clad back smacked into my slightly upturned nose swiftly as he slammed to a halt at his destination. He leaned against a pine tree staring at the dense tree line that appeared where the gravel road broke into crumbles onto the dirt ground.

I shifted my weight onto one foot as I crossed my arms, " Where's the rest of the road? This isn't my neighborhood."

He rubbed his neck either from nerves or annoyance I couldn't tell, "Well Cherry Head to get with it you're going to need to eyeball this yourself. Just shoot low, they're riding Shetlands."

Sensing he wouldn't give me any more information or well more cryptic advice I trudged on. The prickly colored glass flashed in the back of my mind and I held a death grip on any passing tree trunks due to fear of falling again. The forestry only lasted a solid two minutes at best before turning sparse and ending in sky, only literately. My left foot went an extra step in cat like curiosity and dangled off the crumbling earthen ledge. Fear flashed in my heart sending white speckles across my vision causing me to slide onto the ground momentarily arms still looped around the thin pine tree, they were an unbreakable padlock and I wasn't unlocking them any time soon. Arms wrapped around my torso trying to pry me from my spot, but I was planning on taking on roots.

"Just Shoot Low, don't you listen nosebleed?" Sasori ground out trying to pry me from my new anchor.

" What kind of bullshit is this you fucking prick!" I screeched watching a pebble fall and fall, it kept going off the edge and I couldn't hear it hit bottom or water.

"Don't get salty I said just shoot low!" He ground out still pulling me at the seams, I'd honestly rather burst than fall down with that damned pebble.

He sighed heavily and leaned his chin on the crook of my neck, hot breath fanning across my collarbone, " I could just take a nod here Cherry Head."

Flustered I sputtered and reeled back accidently knocking the flat back of my skull into his roman nose, the only feature about him that cried man, not boy. He ducked against a pine trunk holding his nose in one hand as he grinned.

"I just knocked you after I could've died, why are you smiling!" I said pointedly while throwing my hands in the air from aspiration.

"First off too late, you're already dead remember and I'll clue you, " He grinned bigger " I got you to let go of your safety anchor."

"You're a basket case, " I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose as I slid back down to the warm grass, " So I died alone in the reject hole, nobody saved me?"

I brought my knees to my chest sinking my face to rest atop them as he blankly stared out at the infinite skyline, "No, sometimes your flip-top doesn't make it home."

I don't know how long we stayed there because the sunset hadn't even begun yet but the shadows grew longer showing the lapse of sometime passing. He just stared fixated on some invisible point in the distance only he knew, I wished I had maybe seen Naruto one last time. I would have apologized and sobbed hugging him trying to memorize his scent but honestly my pride wouldn't have let my mouth admit why I let us get this way.

Sasori suddenly stood dusting the dirt and invisible grime off his dark jeans, "Let's go drop you off at paper shaker's pad, she was real radioactive in school. Maybe she can answer your questions since you seem to be writing a book. Just remember to compliment her ego sometimes, say something nice about her nest or stomach."

Mistrust nagged at the back of my mind in a tiny voice repeating the word 'High school', " So even in death I need to feed miss popular's ego?" I groaned slightly annoyed.

"The paper shaker's straight, a good kiddo. Just here's the word from the bird and don't repeat it okay, " He paused looking over my expression, " She got here by starving herself until one day she nodded off in the tub. So just say something about her nest, she takes pride in braiding it and such. Be extra good to the kiddo and never push details on why someones here. They'll tell you if they're ready."

Greaser Glossary for Chapter;

Big Tickle: Really Funny

Closet Case: Someone to be ashamed of

Cut The Grass: Be Quiet

Drowning: Baffled

Low: Depressed

Handle: Name

Just shoot low, they're riding Shetlands:

Nosebleed: Stupid

Salty: Angry

I'll Clue You: I'll tell you about it

Flip Top: Convertible


	3. Chapter 3

Purgatory circle chapter 3

Glittering gold cheerleading trophies occupied all mounted shelves while old timey wooden buckets and metal watering cans with uniform words painted in black paint saying "Garden & Flowers" held multiple flowers on all other surfaces, some I'd grown in my very own room and some I'd never seen of. A slender figure hid behind the twin bed's sheer purple canopy twiddling their thumbs on something, the so-called paper shaker Ino must be a teenage girl, not an older one either by the looks of the décor.

"Hey paper shaker I got you a new best friend to babysit!" Sasori grinned as the purple tinted figure went still.

A young blonde poked her head out glaring at Sasori probably for ignoring the "NO BOYS ALLOWED" poster on the bedroom door.

She was young, well younger then Sasori and I. About sixteen probably, fresh into her sophomore year in high school when she died. Her bangs hid her entire right side of her face the tips teasing her collarbone, she looked preppy to say the least. Her eyes grew giant in shock and I realized she finally noticed me behind Sasori and her evident glaring.

"Oh my god! You did bring a girl," Ino jumped at me springing from her flower comforter almost knocking down her canopy, " I want your hair it's really bitchin' with your eyes, but it clashes horribly with all that red your wearing. Like barf me out."

The young cheerleader started poking and probing my hair and well my everything excitedly like she got a new kitten, " That's kind of mean but OUCH! Hey stop that, quit it!"

Searching for Sasori I noticed him smugly nestled into a misshapen blue beanbag chair on the shag carpet with a satisfied glint in his eyes, the sick bastard was enjoying this. Just as Ino poked my chest softly three times she began to make a comment on my flat chestedness.

"Hey are you younger than me? You don't seem pretty mature." She poked my chest twice more before Sasori got up seemingly having enough.

"Okay Queen Bee no need to molest anyone now, " He shooed her hands away and pulled me to his left.

I kept my mouth shut but he could see the throbbing vein in my forehead, she couldn't.

"Ino this is Sakura, Sakura this is the paper shaker herself." She automatically stuck her hand out eager to shake mine so I did.

"Hopefully the next soul will be another girl again, now its 3 to 9. I'm hopeful we'll catch up to them." She grinned brimming with enthusiasm.

"Well Cherry Head here seems to be writing a book so I'm just going to unload her onto you." He slinked out ignoring my protests, bastard.

Snapping my attention to my sweaty hands I noticed that two smaller ones were still grasping mine. Looking back up Ino smiled brightly and led me to her bed and released me so she could clear off the clutter. The so-called clutter she'd being playing with behind the sheer curtains was multiple books about botany. She carelessly slung a couple off her crumpled sheets and onto the floor in one harsh swing, but she carefully grabbed a mint green book labeled "Late Spring Seeds and Bulbs" and put it on her nightstand after bookmarking the page.

"Sorry for the mess I usually only get two visitors." she patted in front of her and I mimicked her sitting across her crisscross applesauce style.

"So, I know you have questions realizing your like some type of ghost thingy," Ino joked poking me in my forehead, " Just spill out your brain and I'll give you the 411 the best I can."

"How many of you are there?"

"Of us you mean. But twelve now including you." She stressed the including out poking me in my chest.

"What is this place and the never-ending sky?

"Like I would know, there's not really like a guide or anything. That plant dude has been here since like 1900 or something."

My chest deflated a little, " Are there seasons or different weather? Anything normal here?"

She made a weird face at the mention of normal, " Kakuzu has snow in his half of the yard but it only rains when something changes or someone arrives. There's totally day and night though, and clocks work!"

"Can we leave?" I whispered under my breath from fear of hurting her.

Her smile slipped and came back quickly only it was fake like Sai's, "No, Zetsu said he doesn't know how to book it from here and he was the first one ever here and still is.

Something in my own face must have slipped because she suddenly gripped my forearms tightly, "But you and me can be B.F.F.s and make every day bitchin', you won't even ask where's the beef. I have two more tight friends plus a noid of a brother that I can introduce you to, we can get super amped and get 'za and brew. Get glammed up with make-up and you can borrow some of my kicks. If I don't know the answers then we can test them out and scream yikes afterwards."

Her determination shone brightly in those husky blue eyes and underneath ghosting the surface was loneliness. Only for a second, I forgot where I was and that she wasn't Naruto. That brief moment made my chest seize terribly and holding back salty tears I understood. If I couldn't set things right with him I'd start over and not make the same mistakes. She was my cosmic do over, my substitute for redemption. For now I'd save my questions for later, Sasori was in the same house as me.

"Hey now Ino I'd love that," I captured her in an embrace to soothe her, " I noticed you have a lot of plants and I think we'd get along swimmingly if we just sat around all day talking about flowers and sprouts."

"Pfft, of course you'd be a flower child with how you dyed your hair. Pinks probably your favorite color." She laughed wetly into my shoulder.

I pulled her back aghast, " Are you reading my mind now? How dare you, " Ino looked scared she upset me, " Just kidding hunter green is my favorite. Like freshly rained on summer grass."

"Your real molded, I think I might regret this." Ino rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly while smiling. reminiscent of someone else, a shadow now.

"Ah come on I'm only grouchy because my main garden is probably gone thanks to my new house set up." I laughed throwing an arm around her shoulders.

Ino made a noise suddenly sitting up effectively sending me flying off the edge. Diving for her end table she started rummaging the sound of her dainty fingers messing with crisp paper assaulting my eardrums. Turning around she presented her hands cupped under an origami rose.

"Well you didn't ask but I'll tell you that nothing grows here so if you want more flowers Konan can make you some paper ones." Ino shoved the rose into my face until I grabbed it.

I began fingering an outer petal, " Also they never get old or dusty so as long as you don't crush them with that forehead then they're crisp and fresh forever."

My sweat dropped, " Well thanks I guess."

80's slang glossary

Barf me out- a phrase reacting to something offensive or gross.

Bitchin'- Awesome or cool

Amped- Excited

Kicks- Shoes

Molded- Someone who does something embarrassingly wrong to the situation, your molded.

Nardo/Noid- nerd

'Za and Brew- Pizza and beer

Yikes- something said after you did something you shouldn't of done

Book it- leave

411- Information


End file.
